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 Company: JM&A Group
Entry Submitted By: PAIRELATIONS, LLC
Company Description: JM&A Group is among the auto industry’s largest independent finance and insurance products provider. It provides 2,800+ dealerships and retail auto outlets across most manufacturer makes/models with products, s.a. new/used vehicle protection and pre- paid maintenance plans, GAP programs and F&I training. JM&A sold 2.5+ million service and maintenance contracts in 2007.
Nomination Category: Sales Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Sales Trainer
Nomination Title: SUPERSIZING SALES IN A DOWNSIZING ECONOMY
- Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2007 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Automotive News dubbed 2007 “the darkest year in the history of the U.S.
automobile industry.” Auto sales were down 2.8% from the prior year. Despite
abysmal projections in the automotive industry, JM&A Group, one of the largest
independent providers of finance and insurance products and sales training for
the automotive industry, saw its product sales increase five percent.
While economic factors continued to weaken consumer confidence and new vehicle
sales declined, JM&A overcame market conditions and reported significant gains.
To what can this be attributed? In a word, training.
Bo Lane, who has served as a sales trainer for JM&A since 2001, knows that
understanding buyer behaviors and the psychology behind “why people buy” is
critical to successful sales. He surmised that JM&A’s sales training
curriculums needed to better incorporate these vital principals. Some of the
programs JM&A was using to educate general managers, sales managers and sales
representatives were in need of improvement. Lane, who teaches students across
the U.S. the positive value of “change”, found himself touting the benefits of
changing the very curriculum he was required to use every day. Bo’s revelation
became a turning point that helped JM&A sustain its leadership position in the
automotive training arena during this sluggish period.
Changes Lane made to JM&A’s programs:
•Altering salespeople’s behavior as opposed to simply teaching a “process” –
today’s typical sales training approach.
•Creating new standards for dealer negotiations that eliminates high pressure
tactics.
•Designing car selling processes that cut car sales times in half by focusing
on the customer’s real reasons for buying and also helping them to self
discover their actual needs and desires.
•Teaching how to answer a question rather than side stepping it.
•Recognizing that today’s customer is more educated, internet savvy and busier
and therefore requires different sales strategies for closing a deal.
And the results speak for themselves:
•Dealer feedback revealed that customers now find that buying car from JM&A-
trained sales associates is easy, pleasant and quick.
•Dealers and sales personnel trained by Bo and his team reported an
increase in profits of between $200 and $600 per car after undergoing JM&A
training sessions.
•Dealers reported marked increases in sales volumes in several cases.
•Increased volumes in car sales also resulted in growth in finance products
provided by JM&A.
•JM&A product sales increased 5% in 2007, much of which is attributable to the
successful training of dealership personnel.
Lane was instrumental in developing this innovative and timely sales approach
for enhancing dealerships’ car sales. Because the number of vehicles sold in
dealerships that sell JM&A’s products also increased, the number of JM&A
service contracts sold on those cars also rose concurrently. Lane’s insight and
vision provided an impetus for change in the face of this great market
adversity.
In 2007, JM&A produced sales to dealerships totaling $2.6 million, an
impressive five percent increase over the previous year. This was achieved
despite a rapidly declining market and weak economy. It is possible to
supersize sales in a downsizing market. Bo Lane can attest to that.
- List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.bolanetrainer.com
- Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Bo Lane joined JM&A Group as a sales trainer 2001. Lane, with more than 15
years of training experience within the automotive industry, was
promoted to the post of senior trainer for JM&A Group’s sales training
department in 2005. In addition to instructing various classes in sales
and “Finance and Insurance”, he has been instrumental in the transformation and
development of new curriculum for JM&A’s training department. His noteworthy
accomplishments in training auto dealership personnel along with his major
contributions to JM&A’s training curriculum led him to earn JM&A’s
esteemed “Star of Excellence Award” in 2007.
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